SPOTLIGHTwww.booklistreader.comreaders that revelations occur every time wemove, guest editor Collins casts a broader net:“Travel writing, in 2017, might be thoughtof simply as writing about space and time.”Further, she notes, she wanted this year’s col-lection to reflect its specific moment. With orwithout all this consideration, this is a mov-ing and impressive addition to the series. JodiKantor and Catrin Einhorn introduce readersto the challenges and successes of Syrian refu-gees and their Canadian sponsors. StephanieElizondo Griest revisits Cherokee, Virginia,an “indigenous Disneyland” that troubled her15 years before. David Kushner’s funny retell-ing of an American’s instant Icelandic fame,earned for getting fabulously lost, pauses toparse the effects of modern reliance on GPSsystems. Reggie Ugwu’s trip to Nigeria is anopenhearted, emotional journey throughfamily and loss. —Annie Bostrom

Birding without Borders: An Obsession,a Quest, and the Biggest Year in theWorld.

By Noah Strycker.

Oct. 2017. 352p. HMH, $27 (9780544558144). 598.

With a nod to Tennessee Williams, Stryck-er did indeed “depend upon the kindness ofstrangers” when he planned his ambitious yearof crisscrossing the globe in order to see half theworld’s birds in 365 days. Through emails andlistserv messages, Strycker created a network oflocal guides who could help him hit the groundrunning no matter where he landed, cavort upmountain tops and hack through rainforests tocapture a fleeting glimpse of species found onlyin that place at that time. His trek began onJanuary 1, 2015, with spotting the Cape petrelin Antarctica and ended with the silver-breast-ed broadbill in India’s Assam province a yearlater. In the course of seeing 6,042 birds, farsurpassing his goal of 5,000, Strycker traveledfrom Australia to Argentina, China to Cam-eroon, Peru to the Philippines, carrying onlyhis backpack, binoculars, and the merest essen-tials. With ecotourism becoming increasinglypopular, especially among birding enthusiasts,Strycker’s straight-ahead tale of his big year willappeal to like-minded devotees and inspirearmchair adventurers. —Carol Haggas

Cuba on the Verge: 12 Writers onContinuity and Change in Havanaand across the Country.

Ed. by Leila Guerriero.

Dec. 2017. 304p. Ecco, $26.99 (9780062661067).

972.91.

Since Obama’s 2014 visit reestablishing ties
between the U.S. and Cuba, American travelers have had the long-lost
opportunity for direct exploration, but there are “no
easy answers,” warns Argen-tinian journalist Guerriero at
the start of her anthology of
stupendously astute essays.

Half are by authors writing
from within Cuba, others by
outsiders passing through, and only three were
originally written in English. The view from
the inside includes a visit by a young Cuban
to his recently immigrated doctor father turned
coconut-gatherer in Miami and an exploration
of “transitions (to what?)” in a country where
today “everything is considered a turning
point.” Vladimir Cruz writes about costarring in Cuba’s only Oscar-nominated film,

Greenbaum, aprofessor of evolutionary genetics, recounts arduous journeys throughout
the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, illuminating
in fluent detail its bloody
history, precarious present,
spectacular landscapes, and
gloriously varied, now rapidly disappearing, biological
abundance. Greenbaum has
been exploring Congo since
2007, gathering amphibians and reptiles and
working closely with local scientists. In this
riveting scientific travelogue, he focuses on
his earliest expeditions, during which he endured disease (malaria, giardia, and typhoid
fever), stinging ants, severe heat, dizzying
mountain climbs, mud-treacherous paths,
wretched roads, hostile villages, and menacing militias. He also reports on the rampant
destruction of the rain forests, the dying off of
species large and small, the ravages of climate
change, and, just when they are more urgently
needed than ever, the decline in support for in-depth, collection-based scientific expeditions.
But Greenbaum also tells stories about excited children bringing him frogs and snakes,
friendships forged, generous hospitality, courageous conservationists, the discoveries of new
species, and thrilling sightings of gorillas, brilliantly patterned frogs, an African golden cat,
and 15-foot-high ferns. The magnificent and
besieged Central African rain forests, Greenbaum writes, are our “ancestral home,” the
planet’s “green lungs,” and the source of Earth’s
greatest biodiversity. His hope is that quests
and findings such as his will impel us to save
this essential living world. —Donna Seaman

Iced In: Ten Days Trapped on the Edge ofAntarctica.

By Chris Turney.

Oct. 2017. 300p. Citadel, $27.95 (9780806538525). 919.8.In 2013, Turney was leading an expedition ofscientists off the coast of East Antarctica whentheir chartered Russian vessel suddenly becametrapped in the ice. The hull was breached andsteering lost, and the closest vessel, a Chineseship, soon became trapped as well. Iced In isSecret Marvels of the World: 360 Extraordinary Places You Never KnewExisted and Where to Find Them.

By Lonely Planet Publications Staff.

2017. 304p. illus. Lonely Planet, $24.99 (9781786578655). 909.

Moving west to east in longitudinal sections of the globe, starting at Fiji’s naturally
smoothed rock Waitavala water slide and ending with New Zealand’s White Island, an active volcano that requires visitors to don gas masks, this guide to the world’s under-the-radar
marvels is a delight for stay-at-home and active travelers alike. Bucket-list nominations
abound, like the Bahamas’ Pig Beach (sources disagree on how the wild
pigs got there); flamingo-hued lakes in both Senegal and Australia; or
the relatively newly discovered, 2,000-year-old, man-made Longyou
caves in China’s Zhejiang Province. The sites are displayed in color
photos or attractive black-and-white sketches, followed by brief but
practical advice for how to reach them. (Though perhaps Dawson City,
Canada’s “sourtoe cocktail,” seasoned with the preserving liquid from a
long-ago frostbitten and amputated toe, and Brazil’s Ilha de Queimada
Grande, where the world’s population of deadly golden lancehead vipers reside, are best enjoyed from a distance.) Descriptions are full of trademark Lonely
Planet personality, and those of longer length include authors’ images and bylines. This is a
good resource for browsing at will, referencing specific locations via the handy index, and
letting readers’ dream-trip imaginations run wild. —Annie Bostrom